1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a pneumatic tube system in which a carrier is moved rapidly by air pressure or vacuum back and forth through a single conveyor tube extending between customer and teller terminals, the customer terminal being located at an outside drive-up customer banking facility visible from a teller terminal located inside a bank building. More particularly, the invention relates to a teller terminal construction for a pneumatic tube system in which the carrier that passes through the single conveyor tube is removable from the system at both tube terminals.
In addition, the invention relates to an extremely simple basic pneumatic tube system teller terminal construction that may be installed for carrier arrival moving generally vertically downward from above into the terminal housing; or may be installed for carrier arrival moving generally vertically upward from below into the terminal housing. A terminal installed for carrier arrival from above sends the carrier from above, and similarly a terminal installed for carrier arrival from below sends the carrier from below into the system conveyor tube.
Further, the invention relates to a simple teller terminal construction in which a carrier received in the terminal from above or below comes to rest on and is held on a semicircular cradle surface of a pivoted cradle-door biased to open but normally latched in a position closing an opening formed in the terminal casing. The carrier is presented to a teller when the cradle-door is unlatched and opens pivotally outward automatically upon carrier arrival at the terminal.
Also, the invention relates to a simple teller terminal construction involving housing and mechanical components having the same primary or basic construction, operation and assembly, which are altered only slightly in components' location and housing connection with the system conveyor tube when installed, selectively, for either carrier arrival from above or below.
Moreover, the invention relates to a pneumatic tube system teller terminal of the type described in which a motor drive means for operating the cradle-door is eliminated, since the cradle-door opens automatically upon carrier arrival at the terminal and the cradle-door is closed manually by the teller.
Finally, the invention relates to a simple teller terminal construction for a pneumatic tube system in which the terminal housing and cradle-door, when the latter is closed, form a cylindrical continuation of the pneumatic tube system conveyor tube connected with the terminal housing vertically from above or below.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many types and kinds of pneumatic tube system terminals are known for carrying out banking services between a customer drive-up station and a teller inside a bank building with visibility between the customer and the bank teller.
Included among these known terminals are the devices in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,237,882, 3,659,809 and 3,790,102 each of which involves a single tube system with arrival of the carrier at the terminal vertically from below, as well as sending the carrier into the system single conveyor tube from below.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,237,882 involves a system wherein the carrier is maintained captive at the terminal. The terminal may be either a customer or teller terminal. The terminal door is motor-driven to present the captive carrier to the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,659,809 involves a single tube system with a removable carrier. The terminal door is motor-driven in the absence of which a special valving arrangement prevents the door, which is spring biased closed, from being blown open when the terminal is subjected to system pressure. The terminal is primarily a customer terminal, a teller terminal being shown diagrammatically without details of construction and operation being set forth, if different from the customer terminal.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,790,102 shows a terminal which apparently may be used either as a customer or teller terminal wherein there is motor-driven actuation of the door to present a carrier to the user when opened.
None of the three patents enumerated above provide any means for receiving and sending a carrier vertically from above the terminal; and the devices in the patents require motor-driven actuation of the terminal door or special valving to prevent door blowout.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,059,246 eliminates any motor-drive for terminal doors but requires a two-tube system and only provides for carrier arrival from below in each of two differently constructed customer or teller terminals.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,985,316 suggests a basic terminal construction which may be installed for carrier arrival and sending from either above or below. However, it requires a movable carlike cradle which receives and holds a carrier, power-driven to present an arriving carrier to a user upon opening a separate sliding door through which the car-cradle is projected when the door is open.
The prior art patents discussed above representative of known prior terminal construction all involve devices which are relatively complicated, which in most instances require power-driven operation of the terminal door, which have many parts and assembly that may require repeated maintenance and adjustment, and, excepting in one instance, which cannot be installed to accommodate carrier arrival at the terminal vertically from above or below.
Accordingly, a need exists in the field of drive-up banking service equipment for a simple pneumatic tube teller terminal construction having relatively few simply designed structural and operating components and parts, operative in a single tube system automatically to present to a teller a carrier upon arriving at the teller terminal, without motor drive means for the cradle-door, in which the terminal construction may be selectively installed for carrier arrival vertically from above or below, and in which the cradle-door is provided with a simple latch mechanism having few parts mounted on the cradle-door for positively locking the cradle-door in closed position.